Red All Over
by MsMonochrome
Summary: Hitman Levi's life is turned upside-down when his boss makes him go undercover and work with the police to bring down a gang called the titans in addition to killing his new partner, one Eren Yaeger. But what happens when he starts to fall for his target?
1. Chapter 1

What's black and white and red all over? The typical answer would be a newspaper, but that's not the case here. The answer is me. Every time I look in the mirror I see my straight black hair and pale skin, and the blood that drenches me from all the lives I've cut short. No matter how much I scrub I can't seem to get the smell to come off, so I mask it in a heavy amount of cologne, which is the reason that my coworker, Hanji, is currently laughing at me.

"Did a perfume store blow up Levi? You reek!" She held her nose and waved a hand in front of her as she spoke, causing her voice to come out nasally. Moblit, Hanji's assistant and probably her lover, chuckled at the joke, making me only scowl further. Who cared what I smelled like so long as it wasn't the stench of death clinging to my skin that people noticed.

I sighed and went back to the report on my laptop, which I wasn't making much progress on thanks to constant interruptions from a certain glasses-wearing idiot and the ancientness of the computer I was using. Honestly, everything else in this hideout was barely two years old, but this laptop would take five minutes to type a sentence, well for the letters to appear on the screen once I'd typed them. It made doing anything several times harder, especially when my irritating boss hated when he had to wait any length of time longer than an hour for a detailed write-up of my latest mission.

Footsteps sounded close by, not the heavy clomping of Hanji or the jittery shuffle of Moblit either, these were light, purposeful steps, which could only mean one thing.

"Hello Erwin." I muttered, not looking up from the screen I was watching, leaning my throbbing head on one palm as I dreaded whatever this man would say to me.

"Levi, you smell wonderful as usual," he coughed as he drew closer, causing Hanji and Moblit to laugh with delight that someone else agreed with them. "How was the mission?"

"People are dead, nobody will be able to tell it's us; I'm writing the details up as fast as this dumb laptop will let me. You're so impatient, all-important leader."

"Whenever you finish that I have a new mission for you. It's a bit out of your field of expertise but I think you're the best man for the job."

I sighed in irritation. Erwin had promised I could go on a short vacation back home to France after this report was done, but I guess that wasn't happening anymore. Fuck I hated this man, his lies and deception knew no bounds even with his own employees. It may have been because he was the leader of a whole group of hired killers, and I was the best of them all.

People whispered behind my back about me when I passed, and I didn't like it one bit. How dare those idiots talk about me where I could see them! How dare they talk about me period, I could snap their necks before they even knew what had happened.

I had killed far too many people in my life, starting from a very young age when Erwin "adopted" me and convinced me to work for him in the future. I did work for him as soon as I was old enough, but that was a story for another day.

With a sigh I finished my report and hit the print button, listening for the creak of the equally ancient printer which meant it was working for once, causing me to realize for the thousandth time how messed up that man's priorities were. After several loud clunks I heard the prehistoric machine spit out my papers, which I collected silently, continuing to ignore Hanji and Moblit as they shouted at my retreating back. I really needed to get an actual office, instead of the storeroom I shared with the freaks so I could get some actual work done. I would definitely demand one after this mission, I meant it this time.

Tromping up the stairs to Erwin's office I groaned inwardly at the three stories I had to climb up in order to reach my boss from the basement where I had been and spend most of the time I am neither at home nor on missions. The hideout had no elevators since it had been built in the early 1900s and such things seemed useless to install according to Erwin, who often told anyone who complained, aka me, that stairs wouldn't kill us to climb. I never countered this argument.

The door to my boss's office creaked as I opened it, yet another thing in this place in need of fixing up that wouldn't get any attention, only aggravating me further on what had already been a thoroughly irritating day. All the furniture in the room was made of polished wood that shone like jewels and was covered in leather so new it still had that funky smell on it. A potted plant sat on the windowsill, not even the slightest bit wilted since it was Mr. Perfect taking care of it. If he wasn't my boss I would slug him for being such a twat. Erwin didn't seem to notice since he greeted me with his usual dose of calm indifference, as though taunting me for being annoyed.

"Levi, so nice of you to join me," the blonde man gave me a small smile, chin perched on both hands, before gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. "Please take a seat, we have much to discuss about your next assignment."

"You were the one who told me to talk to you." I replied, placing the pile of paper on his desk and slumping into the leather recliner sideways so my feet dangled over one of the armrests, just to piss him off. Except nothing worked on Erwin, he was like a robot and it weirded me out.

"Are you familiar with the gang that's been making headlines called the Titans?" He ignored my words as though I hadn't even said them, what an asshole.

"That group of wannabe thugs that keep robbing gas stations and spray painting their name on cop cars? What about them?" I picked at some dirt under my nails, not bothering to look at my boss.

"That's just skimming the surface of what they're up to, are you aware one of their men has murdered a senator?"

"Nope." I refused to be surprised by this information even the slightest amount. "Are they infringing on our turf?"

"You pick up quick Levi, which is one of the reasons I picked you for this assignment."

"Which you have told me nothing about, and will continue to hint at for several more minutes I take it?"

"You will infiltrate the Trost Police and investigate the Titans from within their ranks. Your alias will be a consultant from another area they've struck and you are in Trost to catch these miscreants and bring them to justice." Did he just really say "miscreants?" Erwin must be going senile.

"I'm guessing that my true purpose for being there is to catch them so we can deal with them our own way?"

This brought another smile to my employer's lips, causing me to frown and interrupting my continued examination of my nails.

"That's the first part, yes, but the rest of your assignment is to throw the TPD off our scent, one of their newbies, Eren Yaeger, is close to finding out who we are. Eliminate him and make it look like the Titans did it. That is your mission. Understood?"

I rose to my feet awkwardly, thanks to how I had been seated on the chair, and saluted, one hand in a fist over my heart, the other behind my back. It was something Hanji had come up with and I thought it best not to fight with her over trivial things like salutes.

"It will be done sir." I muttered before turning on my heel and leaving the office.

* * *

My apartment was on the top floor of a renovated 19th century hotel, meaning it had shitty heating, plumbing, and electricity but that the rent was dirt cheap compared to other places in Trost. It worked for me, since I rarely was at home much thanks to work taking me all over the country so I could kill people I didn't know. I kept it sparkling clean because I just developed an obsession with cleanliness, scrubbing myself raw each morning in the shower, scouring the floors so hard that the polish came off and I was forced to reseal them once every six months. I dusted twice a day when I could, once after waking up and once before bed, and whenever I got home from a mission I cleaned the place top to bottom. The other tenants think of me as that guy who smells really bad, either because of all the cleaning products I use or the amount of cologne I wear. I don't care what they think, I always pay the rent on time and never make an absurd amount of noise, which I can't say about everyone else.

Once inside I sank down onto my brown leather couch, one of the few pieces of furniture I owned since other people weren't allowed into my apartment, and opened the envelope Erwin had given me on my next target, Eren Yaeger. The picture of him had to have been one from his driver's license, as it showed him grinning at the camera, eyes closed, as though he hadn't a care in the world. Brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail but it was clear that it was at that awkward length where it was too long to be comfortable but too short to all be tied back. The file said he had heterochromia, one green eye and one brown one, but since his eyes were closed there was no way to tell which eye was which from the photo. The file also said that he was twenty-three years old, but he looked younger than that, eighteen maybe, had an adoptive sister, a dead mother, and a father who was missing. I wasn't interested in reading any further, since I would meet the kid tomorrow and learning about the mark from observation was always better than a written report.

Setting the papers on the table next to me I stretched out on the couch and drifted off into an uneasy sleep from which I only remembered one thing.

"You want to be loved, don't you Levi? You want people who will take care of you and love you with all their hearts. I can give you that Levi, I can give you everything you ever wanted if you come with me."

It was a lie I knew all too well.

* * *

Hey guys! I got a tumblr for my fanfics. It's everydayereri. tumblr .com

Sorry for being so absent on the rest of my fics, I swear I'm not dead, just uninspired. This fic was inspired by a random bit of dialogue that came to me while I was cooking. The words Levi dreams about to be specific, everything else just fell into place after that.

Tell me what you think, ok?


	2. Chapter 2

Morning came way too soon for me, I could have slept several more hours without any complaint, but I had to go down to the TPD station in two hours and it would take thirty minutes to drive down there, leaving me one and a half hours to clean, eat breakfast, shower, and clean again. Simply hitting the snooze button on my alarm and taking even an extra ten minutes to sleep was not an option and that was the reason I got off the couch and went to start my normal routine. My back was killing me after spending the whole night on something other than my bed, as I hadn't planned on sleeping there. I was still in my dress shirt and pants from the day before, which were wrinkled beyond belief and soaked through with sweat from the nightmares I'd undoubtedly had. Disgusting.

I decided to shower first, peeling my sticky clothing off and throwing in the laundry basket for later washing before jumping under the icy cold jets of water and scrubbing my skin harsh enough to leave scratch marks that began oozing drops of blood, which turned the floor of the shower light pink. I didn't care, I'd had that dream again, that horrible, awful dream of days long gone and yet would never be forgotten. I hated that dream.

Once clean, dressed in a freshly pressed suit, and practically drenched in some James Bond cologne that Hanji had gotten me ironically as a present but ended up smelling good to me I drove to the Trost Police Department. The radio played the same five songs the whole ride there, although it didn't help that I changed the channel every time a commercial came on, but upon pulling into a parking space outside the building I had the song "Shake it off" stuck so firmly in my head that I didn't know when it would come out.

I was greeted by a short-haired blond woman with glasses at a desk who addressed me as though she too would rather be anywhere else. The front room had big windows that had to be made of bulletproof glass, seeing as this was a police station, several chairs made of dark wood, and file cabinets along every wall. It resembled the hideout in the plain look of things, but nearly everything was old and worn, covered in scratches from years and years of use whereas the hideout was full of new items, because Erwin preferred things to look nice even if they didn't function well.

"May I help you?" The woman asked, pushing her glasses up on her nose and continuing to stare at an ancient desktop computer rather than me. Stepping closer to her I noticed a nametag pinned to her black jacket reading "Rico Brzenska;" well, at least I had a name for her. I'd heard of the emotionless Officer Brzenska before, she was one of the toughest people on the squad, trained by Dot Pixis himself and a stickler for rules. I'd have to be careful around her, unless I wanted my cover to be blown only a day after I started this dumb mission.

"Levi Rivaille, consultant from Dauper Village, I'm here to work on the titans case." My voice was calm and sounded almost bored, and I gave my watch a glance to emphasize how little I cared about being here. A door opened and a boy, no, a young man approached me, his mismatched eyes a combination of curiosity and distrust. Eren Yaeger.

"You're my new partner?" He asked, frowning slightly as those bizarre eyes took in my appearance. I knew what he was seeing all too well, I saw it every day in the mirror after all; a short man with pale skin, black hair, and silver eyes smelling overwhelmingly of cologne. What I saw didn't thrill me either, the picture from the file didn't show everything, especially not the way anger rolled off him in waves. He was taller than I was by several inches, and the brown hair which had been at that awkward length back then was now touching his shoulders, no longer tied back in a ponytail. His left eye shone a brilliant gold while his right was a mixture of green and blue, flickering back and forth between the two colors as though the iris couldn't make up its mind which to be. Merely green and brown didn't do the orbs justice, they were so captivating it was absurd, and his eyes weren't the only attractive thing about him. It was irritating how good-looking Eren was. He was wearing a white dress shirt that needed ironing along with a green tie that, upon closer inspection, was covered in words in a tiny font and black slacks, probably his uniform.

"If you're Eren Yaeger, then yes. I'll be working with you on the titans' case. My name is Levi Rivaille, I'm a consultant from the Dauper Village Police Department."

Eren snorted and gestured for me to follow him through the newly opened door, which I did. He continued to ignore me all the way back to the tiny office he shared with two other people, a girl with her brown hair tied back into a ponytail who was eating from an enormous bag of chips and getting the grease stains all over the papers she was reading, and a boy with a blonde bob cut who was flipping pages in a huge book. Neither of them looked at me when I entered the room, but that was fine by me, my target was the man I was following.

"You reek, you know that right?" Eren's voice was disgusted, apparently because of how I smelled. Like I cared.

"What information have you gathered on the titans?" I asked him, ignoring his question and getting straight to business.

The brunet rolled his eyes at me and sank into the worn leather chair behind his desk while I remained on my feet.

"They started off as nothing more than a street gang but they've risen to the level of a criminal organization after the murder of that senator whatshisface." He sighed and typed something into another archaic computer, no doubt bringing up the file on the titans. "Since they they've been out for blood, and they also seem to want to change the way the whole country is run, they've even made several videos on YouTube talking about overthrowing the system and putting the power back in the hands of the people."

"This isn't the work of a mere gang, they're serious about what they want and they've made it clear that they'll take down anyone who gets in their way, they made it clear when they killed that merchant who wouldn't deal for them. They need to be stopped."

Eren glanced up at me, his frown lessened slightly by my words; he looked somber for a second, as though recalling a painful memory. Then the look was gone, and he looked frustrated again.

"There are too many terrible people in the world, I need to put a stop to them," another pause. "I just have to."

It was then that I realized that maybe I should have read the kid's file more closely, seeing as there was clearly something that happened in his past driving him to do this. Maybe he would tell me if I grew on him more.

"Look kid, I'm just here to help out, you tell me what you want to do and I'll tag along and give advice. That ok with you?"

He nodded and sat up from the desk, checking to make sure his gun was in its holster before grabbing a black velour jacket with TPD embroidered on it and walking to the door. He paused there for a second, glaring at me.

"You coming shorty?"

I decided I hated this kid after all."

* * *

We sat at the window seat of a café across the street from where it was rumored that the titans made deals. This information had been gathered by some kid at the TPD named Jean, someone whom Eren seemed to dislike a whole lot. Apparently they looked like a horse or something and kept being annoying, I could relate, this brat was irritating me.

"Why do you smell so bad of cologne? You never answered my question before." He asked, plugging his nose and waving a hand in front of his face.

"Why are you such an idiot? Does that really matter during a stakeout?"

"If you're tailing an enemy and they catch you because you reek it is a bad thing, hasn't anyone ever told you that before? You can't possibly be that stupid to have not known that."

I actually hadn't considered that before, that my scent would give away my position. It hadn't seemed to so far, but maybe I should tone down the cologne. What if the brat was right? Instead of responding I took a sip from my latte and sighed, continuing to stare at the empty lot across from us. I hated stakeouts, they were so boring, just a lot of waiting around for something that may or may not happen, and if nothing happened it meant that there was another day of sitting to do.

"You said you're from Dauper Village? What's it like there?" Eren's voice was genuinely curious. "Sasha grew up there but she doesn't like to talk about it, so I wanted to hear about it from someone who'd been there."

I'd only actually been to Dauper Village a handful of times on missions, but I'd reviewed everything about the town several times in order to come up with a plausible alias. As soon as he mentioned it my mind went blank and I was grateful for how he jumped up the next second, practically tipping his chair over in the process and pointed.

"There! There they are!" His voice was quiet but urgent and he had already run out the door by the time I'd stood up, but I was right on his heels.

"Freeze! Don't move! Police!" Eren sounded stern now, those mismatched eyes narrowed in anger as he pointed his gun at the pair of hooded people in the otherwise empty alley. A moment later he looked shocked as one of them lowered their hood to reveal a young woman with blond hair and a long nose, a flash of recognition passed over the brunets face and he lowered his gun ever so slightly.

"Annie?"

* * *

Blaaaarg. I feel like shit but I wanted to get this chapter out for you guyz. Not a lot of development, I'm going to try a hate to love relationship which may mean a slow build. Key word is try. Anyways, hope you like it, I don't know what to write here. Bye.


	3. Chapter 3

I didn't know this girl but I was clear that Eren did, both from the look on his face and the fact he knew her fucking name. Unless the blonde's name was something other than Annie I suspected there was some connection between the two that I would soon find out.

"Annie, what are you doing here? I thought you moved to Ragako." His voice trailed off into nothingness with a single glare from the short girl.

"This doesn't concern you Eren, go away before you get hurt." The girl's voice was calm, but the tone was harsh, as though she could care less about the brunet. Then she took off, running down the street as the person she had been meeting with dashed in the other direction.

"You go after him!" I shouted, knowing Eren was in too much shock to make a split-second decision like I could. "I'll handle the girl!" Without waiting for an answer I started off after Annie, following her fleeing form through the crowds of people clogging the streets. It was lucky she was short too, or else I might not have been able to keep up with her, and when she dashed into an alleyway and found herself at a dead end I couldn't help but smile.

"Annie is it? My name is Levi."

"I know who you are, Humanities Strongest Hitman. That's your nickname, isn't it?" Her voice was icy now and I felt colder just by hearing her words. "What are you doing working for the police Mr. Hitman?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here." I pulled my gun out of its holster and undid the safety before aiming at her left thigh. "What were you just doing? Why did you run?"

"I was meeting with someone and I didn't want Eren around." She glanced at the brick buildings surrounding her and I tightened the grip on my pistol.

"Are you a member of the titans gang?"

Annie shrugged, continuing her examination of the alley. "So what if I am?"

"I'm bringing you in." I replied, and with my free hand I pulled out a pair of handcuffs, but the second I was aiming with only one hand the blonde girl darted towards the wall of one of the buildings and began to climb it. I dropped the handcuffs in surprise and fired at her but due to shock and the support of only one hand on my weapon I merely grazed her calf. It was painful but not debilitating enough.

"Fuck!" I muttered to myself in annoyance before putting my gun back in its holster and the handcuffs in my pocket. I hadn't let a target get away in years, to be outwitted by a little girl was beyond aggravating. There were footsteps behind me and my gun was back out and aimed at whoever had just tried to sneak up on me.

"W-woah! It's just me!" Eren's mismatched eyes were wide in shock as I lowered the pistol once more and let out a sigh.

"Where's the guy you were chasing?"

The brunet looked ashamed and avoided my gaze.

"He got away."

"Of course he did."

"W-well Annie got away too, don't act like you're so high and mighty when you didn't catch her either!"

"I'm doing no such thing, I just realized how stupid it was of me to make you go after him in the first place when you're clearly as incompetent as it is possible for a person to be."

"If I wasn't assigned to be your partner I'd slap you right here and now." Eren's eyes blazed in anger and his clenched fists trembled at his sides.

"Whatever, tell me about Annie, how do you know her?" I waved a hand as if dismissing the previous topic and saw the brunet's shoulders relax slightly.

"I'm not sure how much I can tell you, well, how much of what I know is just made up."

"Look, you knew her name, and unless that girl was not 'Annie' I think you should have at least a little bit of information on her. So spill, unless you want to screw your department over by keeping it in. Then again, someone back at the station could know her, so maybe I don't need you after all. You're back to useless status again. Nice job kid."

Steam practically shot out the brat's ears as I spoke and I started to think that maybe he would hit me. Well, he'd attempt to hit me and I would probably pin both his arms behind his back. In addition to planning how the conversation would progress I noticed, without wanting to of course, that he looked pretty hot when he was mad. But, that wasn't at all relevant at the moment so I ignored that thought.

"I'm not a kid!" He shouted, causing birds resting on the rooftops to scatter from how loud he was being. "I'm not useless either you disgusting midget!"

"Prove it." I challenged.

"Annie and I used to go out when we were in our freshman year of high school. We'd been friends since middle school but after only a few months of dating she moved away to Ragako, or at least I thought she did. Her house was deserted every time I passed it and her phone no longer worked. I don't know what happened to her when she was gone, or if she even left now." His shoulders hunched forward in a depressed way. "That's all I know, Maybe I am useless."

I unfolded my arms, a hint of guilt threatening to break my carefully crafted demeanor but I shoved it down, refusing to let such a thing happen. "That's enough for now, we should go back to the station and report back to your boss before doing anything else. He should be told what we saw."

* * *

Eren nodded slowly, shoving his hands in his pockets and humming a song I didn't know as we walked to where his car had been parked.

"I hate him."

Hanji stared over the book she was reading at me and cocked an eyebrow.

"I hate that brat I'm being forced to work with. He's useless, he's snotty, ugh. I just want to wring his neck!" I picked up a stack of papers and twisted them so hard they ripped in two and I dropped them to the ground without worrying about the mess it made. My feet were then propped on the desk and I let out a sigh. "I can't wait until I can kill him, I will enjoy seeing those freakishly huge eyes fill with terror when he sees it is me who will end his life."

"That sounded really, really creepy Levi; even more than you usually sound. Just what is it about this kid that bothers you so much? I swear you never have acted this way about anyone, not even when Auruo started copying everything you did, and I knew that bothered you so much you made a doll of him and stabbed it." She took a deep breath before giving me a twisted grin. "I haven't told him about that yet by the way, I'm saving that for blackmail someday."

"Hanji!" I jumped to my feet and stomped over to her before snatching her book away. "This is not the time to talk about such things."

The brunette frowned in a mocking way. "Aww, did wittle Wevi want to continue whining about the mean boy he's partnered with?"

"I'm not a baby Hanji, stop treating me like one."

"You're kinda acting like one. Man up Levi, you're a professional, this is just a mission. In a few weeks you'll have a new job and this kid will just be another target you're taken care of. Get over yourself."

I took a deep breath and felt myself relax slightly. "Sorry, it's just... This mission is different from others, I have to find the Titans, kill the brat, don't blow my cover, it's a lot to deal with."

"I know Levi, but you can do this. You're the best man we have and if anyone can do this mission it's you. It's alright to admit you're overwhelmed or lost once in a while, it shows you're human, and I like that side of you, even if it smells terrible."

"I toned it down a bit, I'm not wearing as much as I normally do."

Hanji raised her hands as if praising the gods. "Thank goodness for that, I'm not sure how much longer I could have worked with you if your... habit stayed as it was. What made you change?"

"That brat told me it was unwise to do a stakeout when it was possible for whoever I was tracking might smell me."

The brunette looked taken aback. "Really? You took advice from someone you want to strangle? That doesn't sound right. Maybe you don't hate the kid as much as you think you do?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't think that's it. He had a good idea, that's all."

"Levi, you don't take advice from anyone. This is huge. Maybe the reason you don't like this guy is because he might be a good partner for you after all?"

"I don't like him because he's a good worker?" I sighed and sat back down at my desk.

"You don't want to find reasons to like him because it means he'll be harder to kill if you're fond of him." She smiled and pushed her glasses up on her nose.

"A target is a target Hanji. It doesn't matter who they are, if their name is on the list of those I need to kill it's all I need to know."

"So you don't think you like him even the slightest amount?"

"I don't think I'll ever like him."

* * *

I don't really know what to say after this chapter. I've been busy with work. I'm not thrilled with how this chapter turned out but it was necessary. I promise things will get more interesting.


	4. I take theft of my stories seriously

Guys. I work really hard planning and writing these stories for you guys to enjoy, not steal. If you get inspired by my work I'm honored, if you rewrite a story using the same exact plot and a lot of the same words on a site I can clearly see it, I will get really angry. Not cool guys, not cool.


	5. Chapter 4

While in no way do I own Attack on Titan or its characters this story is still my creation and should not be stolen.

* * *

When I opened the door to the Trost Police Department building I was greeted by a very angry looking girl with shoulder-length black hair and a red scarf who proceeded to shove me against the door and glare at me.

"Look shorty, I don't know who you are but nobody is rude to Eren, nobody."

I stared into her eyes emotionlessly before ducking under her arm and proceeding into the office as though she hadn't said anything to me. My way was blocked by her once more and I rolled my eyes.

"Can I help you?" I asked in a bored voice, not looking in her eyes but rather at the middle of her forehead, the spot a bullet would go if I had the ability to put it there.

"I don't care if you're his partner, Eren doesn't deserve to put up with a piece of shit like you. He's not stupid, he's not useless, so stop telling him he is."

"I don't have to listen to you, you're not the one signing my checks." Was all I said before walking around her and back to the small room I knew a certain annoying brunet worked in.

"Oy, brat," his head turned to look at me. "You ready to go? We have another lead to track down." Eren got to his feet, grabbed his jacket, and started following me only to stop when he saw the black-haired girl that had apparently followed me without my caring.

"Mikasa? What's up?" He asked, sounding genuinely surprised to see her there.

She pointed a finger at me and frowned, causing me to think she didn't have any other expressions. "This shorty is bothering you, right?"

The brunet's lips turned down in confusion. "Huh?"

"You told me yesterday he insulted you, I'm ensuring he doesn't do it again."

I swatted the girl's hand away and headed for the door. "Don't tell me what to do or how to do my job."

I heard footsteps behind me and noted that it was Eren's heavy clomping that followed me and not the girl's almost silent steps. This was good, I didn't need to deal with overprotective girlfriends when I was already dealing with enough shit as it is. Once he was seated in the passenger seat of my car, I didn't trust him to drive and had made him clean his shoes off before getting in, we started towards the center of town.

"Dare I ask what that was about brat?" My voice was steely and my knuckles were white from how hard I was gripping the wheel.

"Mikasa is a bit protective of me." The brunet replied before looking at his cell phone.

"I figured that much out for myself thanks, care to elaborate even further?"

"Uh, I didn't think there was more to say, I have a sister who takes it very seriously when someone picks on her baby brother. That's all. That and she demands to hear the details of everything that happens every single day." He spoke without glancing up from the screen, apparently playing a game that was more worthy of his attention than I was. So that had been the adoptive sister Eren's file had mentioned, she would definitely be someone to watch out for.

I drove in silence, Eren was too preoccupied with his game to pay attention to anything I would say so I decided to keep the talking to a minimum until we neared the parking lot swarming with other police officers. The incident we were investigating was in the next town over so it was technically their case, but there was evidence to believe the Titans had been the ones responsible for it and therefore it was out job to check it out.

"Apparently a convenience store employee was killed by someone in the titans, hopefully they'll have left some information behind that will be useful." I told the brat before getting out of the car and walking under the yellow police tape, gravel crunching under my feet as I walked over to where the victim lay in a pool of his own blood.

The man must have died instantly, there were two holes in him, one in the middle of his head and one in his chest. He was propped up against the wall, one hand clenched in a fist at his side. I examined this closely, leaning over the body while ensuring my long coat didn't get anything gross on it.

There were small cuts on the man's palm and fingers, paper cuts probably, which meant that whoever this person was he had been killed for having information the titans wanted. Interesting, I would have to look into him, or make Hanji do it since she had more free time than I did.

"That's disgusting." Eren's voice sounded from my left and a shadow obscured my vision. "Why'd they shoot him twice?"

"They must have really wanted this guy dead." I muttered, turning on my heel and confronting the nearest police officer.

"Who was this guy?" I demanded, jerking my thumb over my shoulder to point at the corpse behind me.

"Jonathan Clark, I think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"That doesn't explain the paper cuts on his hand or the fact he was shot twice. Whoever did this killed him for a reason." I resisted the urge to tell the officer how incompetent they were being.

"Look, we're not done examining everything, this is our case so stay out of it."

I snorted through my nose and headed back towards the car, Eren following behind me with one hand covering his mouth and nose. The smell of death must have been too much for him.

"What's wrong brat? Never seen a body before?" I called out to him over my shoulder.

"Not recently, no." He coughed before covering his face once more. "How are you so calm?"

"This isn't my first case brat, I've seen worse shit than that crummy corpse." I climbed back into my car, waited for Eren to do the same, then drove back to Trost and parked outside the same cafe we'd sat in before finding Annie. The brat seemed to have recovered slightly by then and could stand to take careful sips of whatever bad coffee was served here while I drank from a cup of black tea.

"I have to ask kid, if you have so much trouble being around bodies and stuff, why did you join the police? You could have easily found another way to serve your community, right?"

For the first time since I'd met him Eren looked truly angry, not at all like he had when I'd insulted him before. The hand clutching his mug began shaking and his eyes were steely.

"I wanted to be a police officer when I was little," he muttered, not looking at me. "My mom was really against it but I wanted to help people. Then one night I heard something strange in the house, and when I went to investigate I saw my mother lying on the floor with a bullet between her eyes, and a man with a gun leaving the room." He looked more sad than angry now. "I watched as the person I cared about most in the world bled out on the floor in front of me and couldn't do a damn thing about it."

Mismatched eyes met mine, a look of determination in them. "I don't know who killed her or why, but I joined the police because I want to stop people from having to go through what I did."

Somewhere in the middle of Eren's story my blood turned cold and I thought I might be sick. I knew how that tale ended because I had been there that night. Yaeger, why hadn't I recognized that name the first time I heard it? I knew it from years ago, when I'd been sixteen and had been given my first solo mission. Grisha Yaeger had wanted someone to kill his wife, Carla because he'd fallen for someone else and didn't want to deal with the mess that came with getting a divorce.

I remembered Erwin handing me a gun with a smile and saying he had total confidence in me. I knew everything about my target, I could do this. At the time I hadn't been sure who he'd been trying to reassure, me, or himself.

The actual killing of Carla had been simple enough, and the gun had a silencer on it so nobody would hear the gunshot. I was already walking out the door when I heard a disturbance behind me and turned to see a small boy crouched over the motionless figure, shaking her shoulders and begging her to wake up. She'd had a son, information which was kept out of her file for some strange reason. I'd continued making my escape but gave the kid one last look before I left the house and saw him staring at me. Staring at me with a pair of startlingly mismatched eyes.

* * *

Oh snap! Didn't see that coming huh?

Yeah, the ereri will come later, it's a slow build, sorry. This is an ereri story though, don't worry!

I spent two hours yesterday planning just how this story would go, major plot points and chapter outlines up to chapter ten. I hope you enjoy it and don't support that other story posted on that is a copy of this.


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